Three of the incumbents sitting at this candidates’ table were re-elected, including Sue Attrill, Chris Kloot, and Jason Lum. They will be joined by Bud Mercer, Jeff Shields and Harv Westeringh. (Jennifer Feinberg/ Progress file)

Jason Lum was the top vote-getter on Chilliwack council

New Chilliwack council will be sworn in at inaugural council meeting on Nov. 6

Council has three familiar faces returning to city hall and a few fresh faces who will be joining them.

The top vote-getter after the Saturday count was incumbent Jason Lum who was re-elected with a whopping 15,604 votes. In fact Lum’s total on its own surpasses the total number of voters in 2014 which was 14,943.

Incumbent Chris Kloot also held onto his seat decisively with a solid 13,298 votes, as did incumbent Sue Attrill who earned 10,113 votes.

New to the council table will be Bud Mercer who was the third highest vote-getter with an impressive 12,053 votes.

The former RCMP commander had a 34-year career in policing, and was responsible for security planning the 2010 Olympics. While campaigning, Mercer underlined that “a safe city with family-safe neighbourhoods” was his highest priority.

Also new to council is Jeff Shields, having garnered 10,857 votes.

The chartered accountant is CFO for the Visscher Group, and Shields pledged, if elected, to always seek out “the right solution” not the easy one.

The new councillor promised to will foster “a strong local economy, fiscal responsibility and a safe community for all residents.”

Newly elected councillor Harv Westeringh acquired 8,745 votes to earn a seat at the table.

The small-scale dairy farmer is also a builder in the construction field, and he pointed out during the campaign that when he was young, Chilliwack was still a “town.”

“We later sought ‘city’ status, and now we are a big city, with ‘big city’ issues,” he said, and pledged to take on the challenges from “a wide perspective, with historical knowledge and deep roots” in the community.

The new council will be sworn in at the inaugural council meeting on Nov. 6.